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Replacing ObamaCare: Insurance Across State Lines (Part 2)

Let’s take a closer look at how interstate insurance sales would impact another important element of consumer-driven health care reform: true insurance. If you’ve forgotten, true insurance is individual insurance. Most people receive their health insurance as the result of a group insurance plan provided by their employer. Some of the benefits of true, individual insurance include portability, better coverage of pre-existing conditions, and greater choice and freedom for consumers.

However, excessive state regulatory mandates can make true insurance outright unaffordable. Consider this excerpt from a 2008 report by the Council for Affordable Health Insurance:

“Access to affordable coverage can vary significantly from state to state, depending on state regulation. For example, community rating and guaranteed issue have made policies in the individual market unaffordable except for the wealthiest residents of Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York. If residents living in states with unaffordable health insurance could purchase policies currently being sold in other states, they too would have access to affordable coverage.” (Emphasis added)

There are significant disparities between the states in the number and extent of their regulatory mandates. While Virginia and Rhode Island residents are required to purchase insurance plans burdened with a stunning 70 state mandates, Idaho insurers are only restricted by 13. As health care policy expert Avik Roy explains, “Insurance mandates can raise the costs of premiums by 30-50 percent. If I could buy insurance from another state, where regulations are less onerous, I might not be forced to buy a policy that covers drug-abuse counseling.” (Emphasis added)

Also, let me be clear on one thing: We want to lift the barriers to the interstate sale of health insurance, but we do not want the federal government to begin laying down regulatory mandates (such as guaranteed issue or community rating) on insurance. We believe that the regulation of insurance remains the duty of state legislatures and regulators, not the federal government. Whereas the federal government has the power to remove barriers to commerce among the states, we do not believe that it has the power to regulate insurance sales in each individual state.

Increasing market competition by allowing Americans to purchase health insurance across state lines will lead to lower costs, greater choice, and better quality of care. Representative Paul Broun’s (R-GA) Patient OPTION Act is just one of several conservative bills that will allow Americans to purchase health insurance across state lines. It’s an essential piece of the conservative plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare with affordable, consumer-driven, patient-centered health care.

In order to learn more about ending ObamaCare, check out our “Five-Point Plan” for full repeal!

Hmm... instead of having one regulating entity you have 50. Insurance companies will move to the state with the least regulations and will take over other insurance companies and create monopolies. I just see the regulations confounding each other and creating just a greater degree of beurocracy.

In addition to his stunning arrogance and the insincerity of the so-called "apology" he offered to American public on Tuesday, Jonathan Gruber gave a new, albeit completely misleading defense of remarks he's made about the availability of ObamaCare subsidies to states that don't set up their own exchanges.

Jonathan Gruber apologized for his "insulting and mean comments" about the intelligence of voters during his opening statement before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The manner in which he conducted himself throughout the hearing, however, brings into question his sincerity. Even his apology came across with a strong degree of arrogance and contempt for the general public.

ObamaCare is perpetuating one of the most glaring problems in the American healthcare system: the doctor shortage that the country faces. Provider networks for health plans on the exchanges are already known for their limited networks, which is a way health insurance companies hold down costs, but the shortage of primary care physicians is exacerbating the problem, as the Associated Press explains:

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hear testimony on Tuesday morning from Jonathan Gruber, the architect of ObamaCare, and Marilyn Tavenner, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), over the lack of transparency and deception used push the law through Congress in 2009 and 2010.

A new study from the Urban Institute has supporters of ObamaCare - what few still remain, anyway - touting how successful the law has been. Of course, it all depends on what your definition of “successful” is.

Just days after Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told a crowd at the National Press Club that the priority placed on ramming ObamaCare through Congress in 2009 was a mistake, one of his colleagues, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), one of the co-authors of the law, conceded that it has only further complicated healthcare in the United States.

Though President Barack Obama and administration officials still insist that ObamaCare is keeping healthcare costs down, the percentage of Americans who have put off seeking medical care for themselves or family due to cost concerns has reached an all-time high, according to a survey released last week by Gallup.

It's a little late for a mea culpa on ObamaCare, but Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) offered one during a speech at the National Press Club on Tuesday. Well, sort of. The third-highest ranking Senate Democrat says that his party should've focused on the economy in 2009 rather than ramming ObamaCare through Congress.

During a town hall event on June 11, 2009 in Green Bay, Wisconsin, President Barack Obama made an unequivocal promise concerning the health insurance reform proposal then working its way through Congress. "If you like your doctor, you'll be able to keep your doctor," he said, "if you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan."